1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the invention relate to the field of microprocessors, and more specifically, to multi-core processors.
2. Description of Related Art
Microprocessor cores may vary significantly in their power consumption based on their architecture, voltage, operating frequency, and performance characteristics. A processor core designed for high performance typically consumes more power than a low performance core that is optimized for power. In addition, a platform or system having processor core or cores may have many usage environments, each with different requirements and operating criteria. For example, in mobile platform, a high performance core is desired for operation when the platform is connected to a fixed infrastructure power network, such as when the mobile platform is docked to a desktop personal computer (PC) for data synchronization. However, when it is used in a battery mode, a low performance with low power consumption is preferred. A fixed microprocessor core with fixed performance characteristics may not be able to accommodate different usage conditions.
Existing techniques to address the above problem have a number of drawbacks. The most common approach is to design a processor core that may operate in a wide frequency range corresponding to a range of power consumption. The main disadvantage of this approach is that since the core is designed for maximum operating frequency, it may contain a large number of components (e.g., high transistor count). This impacts the core's power consumption even at low frequencies due to leakage from such a large amount of components.